


Shifting

by youareperrrfect



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bottom Harry Styles, Larry Stylinson Is Real, M/M, Romance, Shapeshifting, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-16
Updated: 2020-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:01:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23168941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youareperrrfect/pseuds/youareperrrfect
Summary: As it looks, both Harry and Louis are idiots. Neither of them are perfect. Insecurities take over both of them, changing what could have been possible. But when insecurity goes too far, and Louis -literally- becomes a different person neither of them can really know if they are perfect for each other.Or Louis Tomlinson can shapeshift and he happens to fancy Harry Styles
Relationships: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik/Liam Payne
Kudos: 3





	Shifting

Louis' POV: 

Louis could never get this boy out of his mind.

Every time he thought that maybe, finally, he had disappeared, that this boy who seemed to pop up at every corner was gone, Louis just didn't care about him anymore. But he was wrong. He never seemed to stop caring about him.

Years had gone by since Louis had felt like he wanted someone, needed someone, and it had never been this hard to comprehend before. Louis always felt simply empty, and then suddenly his heart felt so full and he was so in love, he needed that boy and he didn't seem to know why.

It started out like any great love story, at the store. Louis was very adamant about having a cup of tea in the morning, most of the people he knew were annoyed by the fact that he literally could not leave the house without either making himself a cuppa or planning to stop and buy one. This particular morning Louis was in a mood, he woke up, early, in fact, something that seemed to be almost nonexistent in his world, and was ready to head off to work when he discovered that, of course, his cabinets were empty and no possible way to enjoy his morning beverage.

It probably would have been easier to just stop at Starbucks and grab some half-decent watery tea, but frankly, Louis wanted to avoid work for as long as possible, so he grumbled under his breath as he shoved his shoes on and started walking to the closest store.

It was cold, and quite cloudy outside, like always. It was only May after all, and the hottest time of the year wouldn't officially start for another month. But Louis silently prayed for some sun later in the day, he needed to start working on his tan before he looked like a ghost in the middle of summer and his friends gave him a hard time about it.

Louis was already tired by the time he walked through the doors, the store looked almost completely empty. The only sound to be heard was the buzzing of what seemed like an air conditioner, and Louis noticed that much like himself the cashiers looked half asleep.

As quickly as he could he walked through the store, trying to avoid contact with the few crazy people who were also up at 8 in the morning. He must have been more tired than he thought as it took him over 2 minutes to remember where they kept all the tea. Right as he turned the corner he bumped into someone, and immediately started to apologize.

"Sorry mate, it's too early, I wasn't looking where I was going." Louis quickly blurted out. Though of course, this was before he got a chance to look at the person he'd bumped into. If he had looked up before he started talking, all of his words would have vanished into thin air.

This man, this outrageously tall man, was perhaps the most gorgeous thing Louis had ever seen. He had to be at least 7 inches taller than Louis, with long curly hair that was clearly still askew from a long night's sleep., and the most genuine, vibrant green eyes Louis had ever seen. His face looked so peaceful and relaxed, Louis was perplexed by how this man glowed.

"Uh-hi. It's okay. I literally did not see you. At all." The giant said his voice low and raspy, Louis couldn't help but fond over it for just a second. Or a few.

If someone 20 percent less attractive had basically called him invisible, he would've thought they were rude, and he might throw them a sarcastic comment before walking away from them without a second glance, but this man was looking at Louis with soft eyes, this man was looking at Louis. So Louis quickly stepped back about 2 feet and tried to avoid making eye contact with the giraffe.

"Yeah, Uh sorry again, mate." Louis gulped thickly, putting a small smile on his face, to not seem rude, he was really trying not to be rude. His heart was beating very fast, and honestly, he did not want it to explode.

"Sorry, you're not invisible, just kind of short and-no you aren't short! That's not what I meant! I'm just tall and there was a corner and I just didn't see you and- Oh god I'm just making this worse arent I?"

Louis started amusingly at the man and finally said, "Oi, give me a break! I'm big!" in a joking tone. The tall boy laughed quietly, looking down at the floor. Louis could see him slightly shaking his head, but he was too attracted to this giant to give him a hard time. It was actually quite funny the way he seemed set on trying to hurt Louis' self-esteem, even though he was doing terrible.

"Sorry, I'm awfully rude arent I? Sorry again." He rubbed his arm and looked shyly down at the shiny white tiles beneath him. Louis noted that he liked to apologize. A lot.

"Oi, It's fine, don't worry about it." Louis smiled. The tall boy smiled his gorgeous smile again before awkwardly pointing behind Louis and walking off in that direction. The shorter lad couldn't help but watch him walk away, wondering what had just happened.

Louis' mind was so full of simply nothing but that annoyingly tall boy he nearly forgot where the tea was again.

Louis found his favorite tea, Yorkshire, after standing around for a couple of minutes trying to get his heart to stop palpitating and finally headed back towards the checkout, grabbing a bag of crips along the way. Louis nearly jumped a foot in the air, mid-yawn when a voice spoke up from behind him.

"So we meet again." Louis spun around to see the tall boy from roughy 5 minutes ago standing behind him, chuckling quietly to himself about Louis' jumpiness, "Sorry." he smiled.

"Where did you come from?!" Louis exclaimed, smiling a bit, trying to ease his nervous jitters as his heart had started beating erratically at the sight of the tall brunette. It was bizarre, the effect the man had on Louis.

"Just over there." The boy pointed about 5 feet away to the bread aisle, still looking amused at Louis. Giant man was clearly pointing out the fact that Louis hadn't noticed him, even though he had been not even 2 meters away, and honestly, Louis had no idea why he hadn't either.

"Oh shut up, Mister Smartypants," Louis said sarcastically.

"Next!" The cashier called startling both Louis and the other lad. Louis quickly stepped up and set his tea and chips on the conveyor. He could feel the man just behind him, his warmth radiating onto Louis and putting goosebumps on his arms. Louis had no idea he could get so nervous.

"Oh, trust me, I'm not smart." The boy chuckled. Louis turned to look at him and scoffed.

"Okay, tall man, calm down with those self-deprecating comments." Louis smiled, quirking an eyebrow, it didn't matter how little they had talked, Louis could already tell this humongous man had at least an ounce of intelligence, and he wasn't afraid to speak out about it.

"Okay little man-"

"Um, we talked about the insensitive comments on my height earlier." Louis interrupted, trying not to laugh. The man already looked ready to apologize.

"So you two know each other?" the cashier spoke up. Louis turned on his heels to face the cashier. Blonde hair sticking up in different directions and a name tag that said, "Hello, My name is" and then in messy handwriting, "Niall". He seemed to be intrigued by the men who were bickering, not acknowledging the fact that he was standing right there in front of them.

"Oh- No, He just called me short a couple of minutes ago, and again just now actually, " Louis replied, ignoring the offended face the boy behind him was making. The cashier looked at the brunette with an accusing glance. Tall man desperately blurted out an explanation. 

"No! I said I was sorry! It just slipped out and I-" He was cut off by the teasing tone of Louis, as the man really liked teasing him already.

"Oh, so you do think I'm short. That's a bit, bloody offensive mate." Louis said turning away from Gigantica and making a face at Niall who was still looking at the two of them with an adoring look on his face, if Louis hadn't been having so much fun teasing the lanky giraffe next to him, he would have been creeped out by the blonde's creepy face.

"So you're not paying together?" The cashier asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No, we- we're separate," Louis laughed, taking his wallet out of his pocket and flipped through it, smiling to himself the whole time. Louis would've paid for the giraffe's things but, that seemed a bit forward, and Louis had never been one to take big steps (because he's so short).

"Okay then, That'll be 6.54, But will that be cash or card for ya?" The blonde asked Louis.

"Cash is fine." Louis shrugged, pulling out a ten-dollar bill from his wallet and handing it to the cashier who put it in the cash register, getting Louis change and handing it to him.

"There you are, Hope you have a good day, sir." The blonde smiled widely, nodding at Louis as he took the tea and chips from the end of the conveyor. Louis thanked Niall then turned to look back at the Tall man, smiling as he saw the lad still watching him. He laughed a little, shook his head and gave him a little wave.

When Louis was out of sight of the Curly Lad and Niall he stopped walking and took a deep breath. It seemed impossible that a giraffe, like him, would be attracted to Louis, but something inside Louis was telling him that there was no way the Tall man wasn't at least intrigued by Louis. It was genuinely terrifying how interested Louis was, he almost couldn't breathe at the thought of them actually being together.

Louis grinned and started to head out of the store, back down the road towards his apartment building. He wasn't even a block away from the store when he heard a voice that had recently become familiar behind him, Louis was still smiling stupidly thinking of him.

"Wait! Hold up!" Louis turned to see the guy jogging after him. Louis tried not to show his giddiness at the thought of the man wanting to talk to him some more. No, he needed to sound cool, very cool, no matter how uncool he was.

"Well that's a bit ominous to hear, don't ya think?" Louis said in a joking as the giraffe walked over to him, his legs looking unsteady.

"Yeah, slightly. 's just that we seem to be heading in the same general direction, plus our conversations have been interesting.. to say the least. God, I never even introduced myself, I'm Harry by the way." Louis just happened to like the name Harry. He smiled at the way the taller boy rambled on, finding him cuter than he had before.

Harry held out his hand to Louis, and of course, like any sane person would Louis took Harry's hand in his, marveling at how warm and soft his skin seemed. He also noted the fact that Harry's hands were also outrageously bigger than Louis.

"I'm Louis. And I think you're following me." Louis said, staring directly into Harry's eyes. It seemed to make the man uncomfortable as he immediately looked away and turned to walk forward. Louis was a bit concerned but he was sure it was nothing. So Louis continued on, "it seems a bit strange that we've never seen each other before, especially if we happen to be going in the same direction, surely I would have noticed a giant like you, Harold."

" 's just Harry. And I haven't lived here long..only a couple of weeks. Actually, today's my first time out of the house since I moved in" Although they weren't looking at each other when Louis looked at Harry from the corner of his eye he could see the little twitch of his lip. Louis was trying not to smile so hard, but he was with a cute boy, a cute boy that seemed... well amazing.

"Spent a long while alone in your flat then? What do you do if you need to like eat?" Louis asked, turning his attention back to the sidewalk in front of him. They were close, both of them could feel each other's heat and neither of them wanted to move away.

"My mum happens to like me very much. She's a bit protective." Harry said in a caring tone. Louis could already tell Harry took family very seriously, just by the way he hadn't talked about his mum in a negative way. Louis liked that. Very much.

Both of them were quiet, and Louis tried not to look too obvious while sneaking glances at Harry. They were nearing his flat, and he had no idea how he was going to keep in touch with Harry, it felt strange just to let the Curly lad walk off without a plan to see him again.

"So, Curly, whatda think about having a get together sometime? As I think you owe me for making fun of my height, multiple times." Louis was smiling but he was a bundle of nerves, usually, he didn't ask super tall, really handsome men to hang out with him, but he wasn't a coward and he wasn't going to risk never seeing the attractive Giraffe again.

There was a bit of a pause and Louis' heart was plummeting. What if Harry didn't like him? What if he was just being polite? Finally right as Louis was going to apologize for being an idiot and so forward, Harry spoke again.

"Yeah, I guess, could be fun." And it wasn't a rejection, it wasn't exactly a yes either but he didn't say no, the only concerning thing about the statement was the tone of the taller mans voice, he seemed closed off, there was no emotion, and when Louis looked over to seem there was a blank look on his face. He just looked completely empty. Louis didn't know what to think.

Louis stopped walking at the entrance to his flat. Harry stopped too but he didn't look at Louis, he didn't look at anything really just the ground. It was quite terrifying the way Harry had changed completely in the last minute. Louis wouldn't say anything though, he didn't want to scare the lad anymore than he already had.

"Well Harold, this is my flat, so I'll see you? Maybe at the store?" If Harry had looked up he would have seen the nervous way Louis was standing, and the tension in his face. But Harry's eyes stayed focused on the ground, and the more Louis watched the worse he felt.

"See you 'round, Lou." Harry waved, but his hand barely moved, and immediately after he shoved his hands back in his pockets. He turned around, not looking at Louis once, there was no kind smile, there were no bright green eyes sparkling. There was just nothing. Nothing but a wave that wouldn't mean anything in a couple of minutes.

"Bye," Louis said more to himself than anyone else, sadly gazing down at the floor. He hadn't expected Harry to get so distant, the lad seemed like a happy man, he wasn't rude to Louis in the half an hour they had talked, and he hadn't said anything that seemed even slightly weird. Louis didn't know what he did wrong. But he must've done something wrong because Harry just... changed moods all of a sudden without explanation.

He walked the stairs up to his flat, running through their conversations, going over every word he said, if he was rude at any point, just anything he could think of that might have made Harry act like that.

Louis entered his kitchen, setting his groceries on his counter. He was on autopilot by now, doing everything but not really paying attention to what he was doing. He made himself some tea, finally pleased with the warm coat it put on his throat. He did last night's dishes, his hands getting wrinkly because of how long he just stared off into the distance while washing the same plate. If anyone had seen him they would've thought he was a robot.

It's not like Louis' had many relationships, he'd been on a total of 8 dates in his life, each of them with a different person. He never seemed to interest someone enough, he was boring, or he had too much energy, or the person he was with was expecting more from him. And of course, he never really cared, it wasn't like he wouldn't ever meet another person like them again.

Louis never really cared about finding someone to spend the rest of his life with. Of course, if he did meet that one person, he would love it and he would love them, but he didn't find them. He didn't really have anyone that wasn't family to love. But it never concerned him, he was only 21, he had a while to go before he even needed to think about really settling down.

Finally, he shook himself out of his thoughts, he had to get ready for work. Money was important, definitely more important than a person he had just met this morning, who was super cute and definitely someone Louis liked. If only he could convince himself that. Taking a shower was the first step.

He laid out some clothes to wear. He got a towel and quickly turned the shower as hot as it could get. It wasn't that cold outside, or inside his flat, but he needed some warmth and comfort.

Louis stared in the bathroom mirror, Displeased with his complexion. He never seemed to look good enough. Some days there would only be little things that he didn't like about himself, like the size of his stomach, or the way his hips looked in a certain t-shirt. But there were other days when he just looked ugly, it didn't matter how much product he put in his hair, what clothes he decided to wear, he was ugly. He knew that.

Today was not a good day. It wasn't, it couldn't have been. He woke up on the wrong side of the bed, he didn't have any tea in his flat, he had to walk to the store, and he met the most beautiful man. He met a man who seemed kind and who apologized for everything, and that man, that wonderful wonderful man... He didn't like Louis.

He was not interested in Louis the way Louis was interested in him.

That was the only reasonable explanation. Harry must've become so distant, so closed off because he didn't like Louis, and he didn't like that Louis liked him. It made sense.

Maybe he didn't like the way Louis talked, the sound of his voice. Maybe he didn't like the way Louis teased him over and over again. Maybe he didn't like the way Louis was short, because he was so so short. Maybe he didn't like the little tummy Louis had, the tummy that he tried so hard to get rid of but never could. Maybe Harry didn't like the color of Louis' eyes, maybe he thought that they were too dull and flat. Maybe Harry already had a boyfriend or girlfriend. Maybe Harry just didn't like anything Louis did.

Louis started at himself in the mirror, hating every inch of his body, and his face, and his personality. Why couldn't he be attractive, and nice, and not so dumb all of the time? Why couldn't Harry like him? Why couldn't he be someone Harry liked?

Louis could not get Harry out of his head, as he washed his hair, and changed his clothes. He couldn't stop thinking of the boy's soft laugh while he was working. He thought of his long hair, his green eyes, the smile that Louis would never not want to see. He was distracted by this tall man all of the time. When he went home that night and made himself dinner, while he sat at his small kitchen table alone. When he laid down and watched a bit of football he imagined playing with Harry, and being with Harry, and just talking to Harry again.

His mind was corrupted. He thought of Harry, but he also thought of how Harry didn't like him. How Louis wasn't enough, for anyone, but especially not Harry. He wanted to be enough for Harry.

The Curly lad was his new dream. The thing he thought about 90% of the time. He had never wanted anything as much as he wanted to talk to Harry some more. He tried for at least 3 weeks to push the lad out of his brain, to just forget him and move on. Though the more he tried the more he thought of Harry, the more he wanted to see him again. But if he wanted Harry, if he wanted everything Harry wanted, he just might have to change himself.


End file.
